Railroad Memories

by Gary White

Last week we were driving south down highway 285 through Colorado back home to Santa Fe. Near the New Mexico border, highway 285 crosses the tracks of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway, a narrow gauge rail line that crosses through some interesting mountain country along the Colorado/New Mexico border. Just as we came up to the station an old coal burning steam engine crossed in front of us pushing three cars of gravel to be used to maintain the track ahead.

Suddenly I was back in Cedar Vale again at the train station on the south edge of town, where the Missouri Pacific railway connected Cedar Vale with points east and west. I was about seven years of age and my mother and I were waiting to take the train from Cedar Vale to Sedan. My father had needed to pick up some oil or other products from Leo Chrisman, the Standard Oil agent in Sedan. As a lark, he had left mother and me off at the MOPAC station, where we purchased tickets from the station agent, our neighbor, Dewey Burch. We were going to have a train ride to Sedan, where dad would pick us up for the drive back the Cedar Vale. I could hardly contain my excitement when that huge, black engine roared into the station and we boarded the only passenger car for our big ride. The passenger car was just like you would see in the old Western movies. There were ancient steel seats, covered with worn and cracked leather. At the end of the car was a primitive toilet and a water bottle and small cone-shaped cups that you could pull from a dispenser and get a drink. Of course, I would need to use the toilet and get a drink of that railroad water! That was just part of the excitement of the journey. All the windows were open because it was summer, and of course, the compartment was not air conditioned.

Were Frank and Jesse James or the Dalton boys out there waiting to hold up the train? Would we be attacked by indians in full war paint? My imagination was running wild as we pulled out of the station, and began to cross through territory that was totally unfamiliar to me. I had seen all the roads around western Chautauqua County, but the railroad crossed through areas where there were no roads. Out across wooded areas, through deep cuts through the hills, and alongside farms and ranches we went, and it was all just as I imagined it would be. That is, all except for the continuous rain of coal soot that poured into the windows and greatly distressed my mother, who was the soul of fastidiousness. All this was just part of the thrill for me and I didn’t mind my clothes getting covered with small black specks. Mother tried in vain to brush them off and that just spread them out, making the spots bigger.

All too soon we pulled into the Sedan railway station and there was dad with his big red tank wagon truck waiting for us. What stories I had to tell, and tell them I did, with eyes wide with excitement from the adventure we had just had. I can remember how my dad laughed as I told my stories and how mother fumed a bit at the black spots on both of our clothing.

All this passed in front of my eyes as I waited the few minutes for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway engine to push those cars past us and clear the tracks for our continued journey. Very soon we would be in home country, where the place names suddenly are all in Spanish—Rio Arriba, Tres Piedras, Ojo Caliente. Now I knew we were nearly home.